Jon Tenuta, Canary in a coal mine
NC State opens the 2010 season 3-0, improved in no small part because its aggressive defense has forced turnovers and put relentless pressure on opposing QBs. The architect of that defense is Jon Tenuta , State's new linebackers coach, hired from Notre Dame after Charlie Weis was fired. Tenuta appears to be one of the oddities: a genuine teacher at the highest levels of the NCAA, someone who can take kids at top-flight programs and "coach 'em up." Over a two-decade career as a college assistant, several dozen players Tenuta have tutored made the National Football League. From his ND bio : Prior to Notre Dame, Tenuta coached at Georgia Tech for six seasons where 18 Yellow Jacket defenders earned first- or second-team all-Atlantic Coast Conference recognition, and 18 players from his first four units were either drafted or signed NFL free-agent contracts. He also was the defensive coordinator for one year at UNC -- 2001, the season that Carolina had the ACC'...